March 24, 2008

Gravity still works - 2007 Darwin Awards

(28 July 2007, Czech Republic) A pack of thieves attempted to steal scrapmetal from an abandoned factory in Kladno. Unfortunately for them, theyselected the steel girders that supported the factory roof. When the roofsupports were dismantled, the roof fell, fatally crushing two thieves andinjuring three others.

(21 June 2007, Philippines) Three entrepreneurs planned to profit fromstolen scrap metal. They entered a former US military complex andapproached the prize: an abandoned water tank. Bedazzled by the potentialupside, the three threw logic to the wind, and began to cut the metal legsout from under the tank. Guess where it fell? Straight onto the thieves.Their flattened bodies have not yet been identified.

(31 July 1997) Two teens were disassembling an electric tower with wrencheswhen it toppled to the ground. They apparently wanted to sell its aluminumsupports for scrap, but they failed to realize the essential role the aptlynamed "support" plays in a 160-foot tower. One of the men was crushed bythe collapse of the ten-thousand-pound tower, while the other dug himselfout from under, a sadder but wiser man from his close brush with a DarwinAward. Reference: Associated Press